A roundup of several smaller reviews I wrote in early summer 2025. Beware of spoilers!
Title: When We Had Forever
Author: Shaylin Gandhi
Series: n/a
Thanks to Shaylin Gandhi, Harlequin Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately I didn’t get to it before time was up; I borrowed an ebook copy from the library, so I can review the story but not the narration. Apologies.
I want to love this book, I want to love the romance, but ultimately I can’t get past what absolute bastards those men were to Mina. They completely gaslighted her, and it infuriates me. She wasted over a decade, some of the best years of her life, married to a man she didn’t belong with while the one she should have been with wallowed in self-pity. He didn’t try nearly hard enough to tell her the truth or have her verify, from her actual mouth, that she knew which brother was which.
Aside from that, I have a very hard time believing Michael could keep an identical twin secret. Did Mina never meet his parents? See baby or family pictures? Meet his friends? Or did Michael keep it a secret from them, too? Wasn’t Grayson linked to Michael’s socials at all? One mutual friend on Facebook is all it takes for Facebook to recommend Grayson as a friend to Mina. Unless the brothers’ parents divorced when they were super young, which didn’t sound like the case, and each parent took one brother and lived a good distance apart (yes, like in The Parent Trap) . . . even then, it’s hard to believe. The parents would have had to lie, would have had to swear silence from anyone who knew, then become estranged from the brothers early on . . . I mean, Mina and Michael would have had to live almost completely separated from anyone and anything in Michael’s past. And everyone from Mina’s life would have to completely ignore Grayson, too. The story just depends on too many cooperative variables and aligned stars.
The book also never addresses the irony that despite Grayson being the rather reckless driver and Michael being a very careful driver, Michael dies in a car accident. When it comes up that he thought he had cancer, I thought perhaps it would come to light that he’d committed suicide. But nope. He just randomly dies in a car accident. His funeral is omitted from the tale, and we also don’t see much of their wedding; convenient, because people should be coming out of the woodwork on those occasions and mentioning Grayson, and maybe letting slip that they could never tell those boys apart.
Mina was likeable, though I struggled to relate to someone who runs for any reason except to escape mortal peril (I was surprised that an endorphin addiction was never brought up. Or joint problems). I feel bad that she allowed herself to live a passive life instead of the active one she wanted. I’m sure she’s at fault in some way, allowing it to happen as she just waited and wished, but mostly the Drake brothers are selfish jackasses. While Grayson and Mina are perfect for each other, I can’t escape the ick factor of getting with your dead husband’s identical twin. It’s just awkward. And creepy. Mina will always be considered mentally unstable, because she’s either pretending her husband’s still alive through Grayson, which puts Grayson down, or finally getting with the correct brother, which puts Michael down. No one comes out of it looking good. She really should have just washed her hands over the entire thing and gone off to finally do what she wanted on her terms.
I think Gandhi could write a damn good romance. I enjoyed the arc of Mina picking herself up and moving on, and the sexual tension was great. Gandhi just needs a more plausible premise. And a love interest who isn’t willing to let his asshole brother gaslight and fuck the woman he loves. It’s so twisted that for the first half I was convinced it was a thriller and not a romance (another reason why I thought it would come to light that Michael’s death hadn’t been an accident).
P. S. – I’m just realizing that the twin swap was supposed to be a mysterious plot twist, that I wasn’t supposed to see it coming—but I knew it almost from the beginning, even before it was revealed at 28% that Michael had an identical twin brother. As strongly as Mina emphasizes how her husband acted like he was two different people, I thought, “Okay, we’ve either got a mental disorder or an impersonator.” So then when it was revealed he had an identical twin brother, I was like, “Okay, yep, they switched.” Then I just waited for her to find out and dreaded her and Grayson getting together. Honestly it would have been more of a twist to have identical twins and not play the ol’ switcheroo.
Title: The Enchanted Greenhouse
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Series: The Spellshop #1
Much thanks to Sarah Beth Durst, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Another delightful cozy fantasy! You don’t have to have read the first book, but it would help with context. I wish I’d reread it before this, because it’s been some time since I read book 1 and I kept thinking the MC here had been the MC there, too, but no, it’s not that kind of series. The MC here is tangential only.
I love that the tone is light but not so light that nothing is taken seriously, because the story’s also very emotional. Both heroine and hero had complete and satisfying arcs. Their romance was a bit unrealistically PG, but that suited the tone, so it worked. The plant characters were endearing–I loved wise old Dendy–and made the failure of the greenhouses devastating.
Caitlin Davies is the perfect narrator for this series–each character, even the plants, has a distinct voice. She’s very talented and absolutely elevates the material.
Title: The Vengeful Dead
Author: Darcy Coates
Series: Gravekeeper #5
Much thanks to Darcy Coates, Poisoned Pen Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Apologies that it’s past due.
This was a VERY satisfying conclusion to the series! The resolution was entirely thorough, I can’t think of any lingering questions. The character arcs were all completed. The only complaint about the book I can think of is that it was a little light on ghosts, a little heavy on the corporate . . . espionage? Takedown? Not sure what to call it, but too much focus on business and offices and paperwork and not enough investigating spooky mysteries. But there was the BPS B plot, so I wasn’t completely bereft. I’m sad to say goodbye to the characters and to Blighty, but we leave them in a good place. I wouldn’t say no to some low-stakes short stories chronicling some of the Keira’s work as a spirit medium.
Title: The Retired Assassin’s Guide to Country Gardening
Author: Naomi Kuttner
Series: Retired Assassin’s Guide #1
In the end I enjoyed the book, but it was rather a chore to read. Seemed to go on and on and on. I was reading it for a purpose or I’d have DNFed.
The characters were quirky and interesting, but I hate a narrative with multiple POVs, and the focus wasn’t on the assassin, as promised, or even the gardener; I’d argue Eleanor was the true main character, which is unfortunate because I found her pretty annoying. She didn’t act her age, she was pushy, manipulative, arrogant, and narcissistic (very like the villain, actually), and her general purpose was ex machina: she inexplicably knew facts about people and circumstances and of course had helpful contacts from her own shady past. The story couldn’t have happened without her, she propelled it, yet we know absolutely nothing about her except that she’s 60 years old and a former art thief? Or forger? It was vague. I couldn’t even appreciate her fledgling romance with the inspector; they were both such unlikable people that the idea of a romance between them was cringy.
Dante and his adjustment to civilian life (resisting the urge to kill people, lol) was entertaining, and I appreciated his dry humor, but I don’t understand why he was written as if he was an emotionless/lifeless robot programmed only to kill and magically became a sentient human once he retired. He was a government agent, not an automaton. There’s no reason he couldn’t have had experiences in relationships and animals and plants and food, for god’s sake. He might not have had much chance to explore those things, but it was an odd choice to act like life itself was a completely foreign concept to him. Like he was born 39 years old.
I also didn’t care for the little chapter epigraphs that hinted at/summarized what the chapter was about. Quit teasing and get on with it.
I wanted more ghosts. We don’t really see much of them until the last third/quarter.
And some romance would have been nice. One that didn’t make me cringe.
So the book was good but far from great. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say it was an intriguing concept with questionable execution. That said, I did appreciate its efforts to be quirky and different.
Title: A Language of Dragons
Author: S. F. Williamson
Series: A Language of Dragons #1
Thank you to S. F. Williamson, HarperCollins, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Got to 92% and DNFed. Just couldn’t do that last hour. I’d grown bored, and when Viv got the stupid idea to stay behind and be the prime minister’s personal translator, I lost patience with her. The premise is unique and intriguing, and Vivian is sympathetic (though not very relatable), but the narrative became excessively redundant. Figuring out the dialects was too slow, banding together to escape the manor was too slow. Bulgarians this, Bulgarians that. Vivian stubbornly refused to consider the rebels had a good point for too long. The stakes were incredibly high, situation tense, but things had been high and tense pretty much since page one, so by 92%, the danger was stale. The whole thing had grown stale, and it was becoming clear that it wasn’t going to have a very happy ending and would continue in a series, and I knew I didn’t care enough to follow the series, so I just called it. Interesting idea, not the best execution.
Title: No More Yesterdays
Author: Catherine Bybee
Series: The Heirs #3
Thank you to Catherine Bybee, Brilliance Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Trite and predictable but as full of heart as a corporate setting in SoCal can be. The family all supporting each other was great, but no one seemed to have a whole lot of personality. Except Nick, but that was his entire job as the token flaming gay bff. Overall a good story but not great. Narrator was fine.
Title: The Maid’s Secret
Author: Nita Prose
Series: Molly the Maid #3
Thank you to Nita Prose, Random House, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I’m confused. At 34%, most of what I’ve read so far is historical fiction from the grandmother’s POV; I’m pretty sure there isn’t even a mystery yet. I’m here to see Molly solve a mystery, not delve into the grandmother’s backstory. Not what I wanted, sorry, moving on.
Title: Rage
Author: Linda Castillo
Series: Kate Burkholder #17
I find it baffling that Kate and Co didn’t suspect sex trafficking until the eleventh hour, when it was fairly obvious to me as soon as they visited the strip club. Vulnerable young women + super shady business + creepy men with zero respect for women = illegal sex trade going on.
I found the heat entirely relatable, as we just had very humid indices of 103-105 over the past weekend. Not fun.
Not entirely sure why the title is “Rage.” No one was particularly motivated by anger.
For as often as Kate talked about being nauseous, I half suspected she was pregnant, but that was shot down. And that’s fine, she and Tomasetti need home to be their sanctuary away from work.
Loved it overall. Very compelling case, love Kate’s friendships with her deputies, love her relationship with Tomasetti.
